The present invention relates to fasteners and to the method of making the same and, more particularly, to hinge belt fasteners for use in connecting adjacent belt segments of, for example, a conveyor belt.
Hinge belt fasteners have been used extensively for joining together belt segments of an endless conveyor belt. Such fasteners include upper and lower plates joined by a pair of arcuate straps or loops so that when two fasteners are disposed back-to-back with the straps interdigitated, the various straps define an aperture for receiving a hinge pin. Some of such prior art belt fasteners include an abutment finger extending from one of the plates for limiting insertion of and locating a belt segment received by the fastener.
Such prior art belt fasteners are typically formed from a flat blank of metal by various steps of cutting, punching and bending. The abutment finger, when formed, is simply an extension of one of the plates bent at a right angle to that plate and directed toward the other plate.
These prior art belt fasteners are designed for use with a hinge pin of a predetermined cross-sectional dimension. If a particular application, due to the severity or frequency of bending, tension exerted on the belt or belt speed, dictates the use of a larger hinge pin, a larger belt fastener must be used. The larger belt fastener, being formed of thicker stock, is more expensive. Furthermore, the use of such larger belt fastener is often wasteful and unnecessarily adds weight to the completed belt assembly because the smaller gauge fastener often has the structural characteristics necessary to adequately hold a belt segment, it simply does not offer a sufficiently sized aperture for receiving the larger hinge pin. For a further description and illustration of the structure and operation of such prior art belt fasteners, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,176,358 and 3,913,180.